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‘Contortionist': A Folding Bike Cool Enough for Batman

I see a lot of folding bikes in Barcelona. Small-ish apartments, a lack of elevators in many apartment buildings and a generally high risk of theft means plegable bikes are pretty popular. I used to have one, but it was so small that motorists would laugh at me in the street (I’m over 6’2”) so I swapped to a less embarrassing pink girls’ bike. And there seem to be almost as many designs as there are riders.

Dominic Hargreaves, a 24 year old designer, has come up with yet another one, called the Contortionist. And when you see how fast and easily it folds up, you’ll know why. It’s almost impossible to explain, so head to the (non-embeddable) video page to see in in action. And watch your fingers — some of those hinged joints look like they could chop a pinkie off at the knuckle.

You’re back? Good. You’ll have noticed that, apart from folding up to a size smaller than its own wheels (on which it can still be rolled in its collapsed state) there are few other oddities. First, the wheels are each attached by one arm, not two. This helps the folding, but has to be made nice and strong. It also puts the wheels off-axis instead of in the usual straight line.

Next, where’s the chain? There isn’t one. Actually, check the video again and you’ll see that Hargreaves doesn’t even pedal, but a production version will use pipes and hydraulic fluid to transfer power from leg to wheel. Yes, production. Hargreaves is in talks with three car manufacturers to actually make this bike. It shouldn’t be too hard to guess which they are: they’re all German.

The best thing, though, is that the bike looks so damn cool when unfolded. Most folders have charm, but even the beloved Brompton is a bit on the dork/utility side of things. The Contortionist, though, looks like it could be Batman’s bike.